U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “Colorado governor signs bill allowing cities to set their own gun restrictions into law,” CBS News reported. “ It was one of three bills signed Saturday by Governor Jared Polis (the others being a background check “expansion” and the creation of a “gun violence prevention office”).
This effectively ends “preemption” in the Centennial State, that is, protections that gun owners and their representatives have fought long and hard for to keep localities from denying supposedly unalienable rights within their jurisdictions. If it can be done to the Second Amendment, what is to stop it from being done to the First, the Fourth, the Fifth, the Eighth…?
Per the bill summary:
“The bill permits a local government to enact an ordinance, regulation, or other law governing or prohibiting the sale, purchase, transfer, or possession of a firearm, ammunition, or firearm component or accessory that is not less restrictive than state laws governing the sale, purchase, transfer, or possession of the firearm, ammunition, or firearm component or accessory. The local law may only impose a criminal penalty for a violation upon a person who knew or reasonably should have known that the person’s conduct was prohibited.”
“This bill will allow the cities that want to pursue these kinds of laws to do so consistent with the Second Amendment,” The Wall Street Journal quoted Polis. Boulder Mayor Sam Weaver, who makes a point of letting everyone know he “owns firearms for hunting and self-defense,” surmised “the legal case over [his city’s] ban would most likely be dismissed under the new state law, putting the ban back into effect … Now he hopes that other cities will adopt similar laws.”
It will happen, and one significant factor that will allow it is an influx of new Colorado voters, with California “bringing a progressive strain of politics with them and angering more conservative parts of the state,” and with Polis adding incentives to attract “undocumented” foreign nationals who can then be put on a “pathway to citizenship.” That’s why he posts graphics calling for that on his Facebook page.
It’s not just happening in California. And the citizen disarmament lobby will continue to push for similar edicts in other states, creating the aptly described “patchwork quilt” of ever-changing diktats that will make it impossible for gun owners to travel with firearms from one locale to another without risk of being declared criminals by politicians intent on attaining a “monopoly of violence.”
The antis have been at this for a while.
“I know that what works in Chicago may not work in Cheyenne,” Barack Obama said back in 2008 when attempting to appear “reasonable” about citizen disarmament. What exactly works in Chicago was left unsaid, which, considering the past Juneteenth weekend, bears examining. What Obama was doing was making the fraudulent case that, Supremacy Clause notwithstanding, states and local jurisdictions have the power to negate unalienable rights based on the tyranny of a regional majority.
Note the power only flows one way, though. When Democrats demand a national “assault weapon” ban, or “red flag laws” there are never provisions for states or cities to decline. And “universal background checks” mean just that. Whenever gun-grabbers want to impose their will on others by restricting rights, the infringements cover everyone, in Everytown, regardless of whether they’re in Chicago or Cheyenne.
On the flip side, when restrictions on rights are eased a bit at the federal or state level, all of a sudden indignant “progressives” start screaming about “home rule.” No matter that a higher level of government has enacted protective legislation; suddenly it’s imperative for control freak enclaves to claim the power to ban guns in parks, to outlaw classifications of firearms they don’t want to let people own and to forbid the practice of carrying or transporting or transferring. They insist on having it both ways, that is, they insist on always having it their way. When they say “home rule,” it’s all of our homes they mean.
“The newly signed Colorado firearms law allowing towns, counties, municipalities, and even special districts to have their own, more restrictive, local firearms laws will be a nightmare for gun owners,” George Gramlich, a longtime colleague and editor of the Sangre de Cristo Sentinel in Westcliffe told AmmoLand Shooting Sports News. “The leftist government entities will go full ban entrapping unwary gun owners with felony charges and jail time just for stopping for gas in their area or getting pulled over for a traffic violation. Litigation will be rampant with incredible legal costs for all involved. Classic liberal insanity.”
“We are again having our famous Independence Day Second Amendment March in our Independence Day Parade of July 3, Saturday,” Gramlich reminds readers. “With all this anti-Second Amendment state action, we anticipate a big showing this year.”
Noting that towns like Westcliffe are populated by a different kind of citizen than lives in the more densely-populated, Democrat-voting urban areas raises another set of concerns. The surrounding Custer County is but one of many that have declared themselves to be “Second Amendment sanctuaries” per SanctuaryCounties.com.
With the new state law now presuming to forbid local jurisdictions from enacting firearm legislation “less restrictive” than state law, the question of what will happen to these resolutions and ordinances, lawfully passed by elective representatives to reflect the will of the people, is one that may well be tested soon.
One thing gun owners can be certain of is that those who demand our guns will demand compliance with their orders, and those emboldened by Colorado’s preemption-killer bill will renew their well-funded push to repeat what they know will work wherever they have the votes.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
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